of worship rising up and up and up from this room
into the very throne room of God.
And I believe God is pleased
and God inhabits the worship of his people.
Amen.
I've been reading a book entitled Epicenter.
I hope that if you've not seen that book yet,
you might get a copy of it and read it.
It's a terrific book written by Joel Rosenberg.
He's talking about the world situation
and how it potentially flows right into the fulfillment
of prophecy which could be fulfilled
within the next few months in our generation
or perhaps yet still in the future.
But for the first time in 2,500 years,
the political situation in the world is such
that the specific prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39
could now be fulfilled.
Very interesting book.
But in it, he's recounting how God is working in our world.
He goes back to one of his earlier books, which was fiction,
and he tells again a story which he affirms in this book
was actually a true story that was told to him.
He talks about two Christians who were driving
through the mountains of Iran
with a car full of Bibles.
And this happened just a few years ago
with a car full of Bibles.
Suddenly, their steering wheel jams
and they have to slam on the brakes
to keep from driving off the side of the road.
When they look up, they see an old man knocking
on their window asking if they have the books.
What books they ask?
The books Jesus sent me down here to get
the old man replies.
He goes on to explain that Jesus recently came to him
in a dream and told him to follow.
When he awoke, he found out that everyone
in his mountain village had had the same dream.
They were all brand new followers of Jesus,
but they did not know what to do next.
Then the old man had another dream
in which Jesus told him to go down the mountain
and wait by the road for someone to bring the books
that would explain how to be Christ followers.
He obeyed and suddenly two men with a car full of Bibles
came down the road to a stop right in front of him.
Folks, God is at work in our world today.
Rosenberg says that he received that story firsthand
from a person who directs a ministry
in that part of the world who knows
the people that happened to.
That person who heads that ministry
is one of our missionaries.
Rosenberg recounts what God is doing in the Muslim world
that there are more Muslims today being converted
to faith in Jesus Christ than at any time
in the last 1500 years.
I know we read about the Muslim fundamentalists
and their threat to our culture and to our nation
and that's very real.
And they do intend to enforce the laws of Islam
on us by the sword.
That is true.
It is true, sadly, that England and France and Canada
within the generation of some of us sitting right here today
will all be Muslim dominated because of the birth rate
in those lands.
But let me tell you what is also true.
In one of the most populous countries in the world,
in Southeast Asia where the Muslims aren't controlled today,
at the rate of the growth of conversed Jesus Christ
in that country, that nation will be a Christian nation
within our generation.
If it keeps up like it is now,
God is at work in our world today.
He is at work in those areas of the world
that are most war-torn, Baghdad, and Tehran
with many people coming to faith in Christ.
It is said that in the country of Iran,
more people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ
today than ever before.
We don't hear about that.
What we need to understand is that God is at work
in our world today and you and I live in the most exciting
generation, I think, since the first century of the church.
God is doing things in our world today
that previous generations would not have dreamed about,
but he's doing it.
And you and I have the privilege of being a part
of what God is doing among the nations.
God has purpose to call out a people for his namesake
from the nations of the earth.
This work that God is about might be done through angels
or some other means, but it is God's good pleasure
to do his work through human vessels.
Notice that even though God gave that man in Iran a dream,
he sent two people along in a car
that was filled with Bibles.
They had to do their part too.
God has a way to do his work and it is through us.
That is God's means.
It's amazing, isn't it?
That God chooses to limit himself to some degree,
to the using imperfect people like you and me,
people who are the nobodies that we were talking about
last week in the text in Corinthians.
The people that God deliberately chooses
so that he can make the wisdom of the world
to appear foolish.
The apostle Paul was as amazed as anyone
that God would choose somebody like him.
We see him mostly post conversion,
but pre conversion, Paul was a pretty mean guy.
We might compare him in some sense to terrorists.
Paul himself says, I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord who's given me strength to do his work.
He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him.
Even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ,
in my insolence I persecuted his people.
But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance
and unbelief.
Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was.
He filled me with the faith and love
that comes from Christ Jesus.
Paul was amazed that God would use someone like him.
In our text for today,
which is 1 Corinthians chapter two,
and I invite you to open your Bible there.
Paul recounts for us how God used him
in the city of Corinth.
What happened there?
We notice here three actions of Paul.
And as we trace these actions,
as we think about these actions of Paul,
we're going to find that they illustrate
what every Christian's party is in the work of God.
We're going to discover what God wants you and me to do
to join him in his work in the world.
When I came to you, brothers,
I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom
as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise
and persuasive words,
but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power
so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,
but on God's power.
The first action I notice in the text is that Paul says,
when I came to you,
if I'm going to participate with God
in his work in the world,
I am to go.
If you're following along on your yellow outline,
which I hope you are, that's the first fill in.
If I'm going to work with God
in what he's doing in our world today, I am to go.
Jesus the Lord of course gave us the orders.
For example, in Mark chapter 16,
he says go into all the world
and preach the good news to all creation.
Paul went to Corinth,
not only because Jesus had said what he did
before his ascension,
but because Paul himself had received
a personal commission from Jesus.
Much like the man in Iran or others
who are having the same experience,
Paul says that he had a vision of Jesus.
And Jesus said to him for this purpose,
I've appeared to you,
to appoint you a minister and a witness,
not only to do the things which you have seen,
but also to do the things in which I will appear to you,
delivering you from the Jewish people
and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you.
God says, Paul, I want you to go.
I will deliver you from all of those who are enemies,
but I am sending you Paul, especially to the Gentiles.
Where's God sending you?
In the last 2000 years,
some 50 generations have come and gone.
And God's work in the world is still unfinished
and God is still at work.
And yet today, over a billion,
a billion people have never heard
the good news of Jesus Christ.
Of the more than 6,000 languages of the earth,
some 2,000 still have no part of the Bible in their language.
Almost 4,000 people groups or ethnic groups in the world
are still waiting for their very first
visible, functioning, viable,
witnessing local church to be planted in their midst.
And while all of that is true,
about 99% of the efforts of the church
are on people who have already heard
and have the gospel in their possession.
That tells me that there's a big job out there yet to do.
The command to go is for all believers to heed.
In Matthew 28, Jesus put it this way,
as you are going, make disciples.
The assumption Jesus makes is that we are going.
That is, in the course of our living,
whatever we're about, make disciples.
That is how God's work is going to get done.
That's how God is going to call out a people
for his namesake among all the tribes of the earth.
And I remind you of the vision
that John had in Revelation 7.
He says, after these things, I looked
and behold a great multitude which no one could count
from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues
standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
That is what God is about.
And he wants you and me to be a part of that.
If I'm going to be, then I need to go.
Paul went, Paul came to the city of Corinth.
That was part of his strategy.
Has God developed in your heart, in your mind,
a strategy for reaching those who are in your neighborhood
or your school, your circle of friends?
Because as we're going about the course of our lives,
going to school, visiting with friends, shopping,
going to work, that we're to make disciples.
My part in God's work is to go.
Would you say that sentence with me, please?
My part in God's work is to go.
Amen.
And so the question is where will you go in 2008?
It may be where no one has gone before.
It may be to another tribe, another ethnic group.
It may be across the street or into the lunch room
where you can sit down with some people and talk with them.
Where does God want you to go so that you can participate
in his work in the world?
You say, does God want me to participate?
Does he need me?
God does.
He chooses to need you, to want you, to use you.
Paul says, when I came to you,
and then he goes on to say in his second action,
I proclaimed to you, I proclaimed to you.
If I'm going to participate with God
in his work in the world, I am to tell.
I am to tell just as Paul did.
What am I to tell?
Essentially the same message that Paul did,
he calls it here in our text, the testimony about
or the testimony of God.
The word testimony is an interesting word.
It means the mystery of God.
It's the Greek word, marturion,
from which we get our word mystery in English.
It came from a verb that meant to shut the mouth
and thus to keep a secret.
Paul is saying that God had a secret
that he never shared until now.
And that secret is what his intent is.
And his intent is to have a people
from all the tribes of the earth
redeemed through the sacrifice of his son.
What Paul means here by the testimony of God
can be summed up in what he has said earlier
that it is Christ crucified.
He says that is the wisdom of God.
It is Christ crucified.
He's, oh, I know, to the pagan world,
it sounds like just foolishness.
That's how people look at the simple gospel of Jesus.
It's foolishness.
It doesn't really make sense.
Man's pride is offended because it means
that man is in need of someone intervening,
coming into his life and rescuing him
in a way that he cannot rescue himself.
Man doesn't like that.
He says that's foolish.
But that is the wisdom of God.
And those who are religious like the Jews in particular
find a weak message because they expected the Christ
to be powerful and to deliver them as a nation.
How could a crucified Christ amount to anything
that it is God's wisdom?
You and I are to tell God's wisdom to our world,
both Jew and Gentile.
Jesus Christ crucified was Paul's only message
among the Corinthians.
Notice the singularity of it.
He says, I purpose not to know anything among you
or to proclaim anything among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He did not mix it with something else.
He did not add to it some foreign ideas.
He did not bring human wisdom into it.
And false teachers were already at work among these people.
Paul says, I want you to remember
the message I proclaimed to you.
It was very, very simple.
It was Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Now that is the fountain of much truth,
but that's the essence of it.
Some of you may recognize the name of David Brainerd.
There's a city in Minnesota named after David Brainerd,
who was a famous missionary to the American Indians
in another generation.
In his journal, David Brainerd writes these words,
I never got away from Jesus and him crucified in my preaching.
I found that once these people were gripped
by the great evangelical meaning of Christ's sacrifice
on our behalf, I did not have to give them many instructions
about changing their behavior.
What Brainerd is saying is that when people understand
what the love of God has provided for us,
when they understand the sacrifice of Jesus
and they believe on him, they come into a relationship
with him, when they love him,
he begins to change them from the inside out.
That's God's wisdom.
Man's wisdom cannot do that.
Paul says, we've renounced the hidden things,
hidden because of shame, but not walking in craftiness
or adulterating the word of God.
Folks, we must never adulterate the word of God.
We must proclaim it, as Paul says.
In another place he says, we are not like many
peddling the word of God, but from sincerity,
as from God we speak in Christ.
We don't want to make merchandise of the word of God
as some do, we want to tell the simple story of Jesus.
How am I to tell it?
Well, let's tell it like Paul did.
First of all, I'm to tell the gospel message
as God's specially sent messenger.
God's specially sent messenger.
Do you see yourself that way?
Paul says, I proclaimed to you.
That word proclaiming, I see myself as one
who is specially sent,
specially sent to deliver a message to you.
What a great way for you and me to see our lives.
Especially sent by God to somebody.
We might use the paraphrase today of a newscaster.
We don't make the news, although sometimes the media
does seem to want to make the news,
but really the job of a newscaster is simply
to tell the story of what's happened.
You and I are specially sent to do just that.
I am also to deliver this message of the gospel
as simply as possible.
Paul says, I didn't come to you with eloquence.
I didn't come to you with superior wisdom.
I did not come to you with wise and persuasive words.
I didn't try to entice you with arguments.
I didn't come to you with authoritarian demands
that you do something.
He says, just simply, I told you about Christ crucified.
The point I really want to get across
into your heart this morning is this.
If you want to work with God in the world,
it means that you're to tell.
To tell, you don't have to be a theologian.
You don't have to be a pastor.
You don't have to be a missionary.
All you have to be is you.
God's child, God specially sent one.
The most effective way to communicate the simple gospel
is to wrap it in your own life story.
Just tell people the news.
Here's what happened to me.
And so we come to the summation statement
for this part of the sermon.
Would you say it with me please?
My part in God's work is to simply,
compassionately pass on the message of Christ crucified.
That's it.
I am to go.
I am to tell.
Paul says also, and he reminds them,
my message and my preaching were with the demonstration
of the Spirit's power.
It brings me to my third point,
and that is that if I'm going to work with God in the world,
there's one more thing I need to keep in mind.
I am to go, I'm to tell, and I am to trust.
I am to trust.
Because you see, to do God's work,
I must depend upon the Holy Spirit.
With Paul we share familiar hurdles.
We have similar battles that Paul did.
And Paul is very transparent here.
He gives us men a good example.
He tells how he felt.
We guys have a hard time with this.
Paul says, I was with you in weakness.
Weakness.
Now what did Paul meant that he had bad eyesight
or some other physical frailty we don't know?
It could be that he's talking about weariness
from his travels.
Maybe Paul felt discouraged, but whatever it was,
he says, I was there with weakness.
That's how I felt, very weak.
Do you ever feel that way?
He says, I was with you in fear.
We don't think of Paul being afraid, but he was.
The Greek word is phobos.
We get our word phobia from it.
He says, I was with you with phobias.
Now what was Paul afraid of?
He doesn't specifically tell us, but whatever it was,
it produced an alarm in him.
There was a mental and emotional state of panic
on Paul's part when he was in Corinth.
Something was taking place.
It's hinted at, and we'll get there in a moment.
Thirdly, he says, I was with you in much trembling.
Notice the underscore of much trembling.
Paul was so afraid in Corinth,
he was literally shaking with fear.
Have you ever felt this way?
Especially as you're telling the story.
In Acts 18, Luke tells us about Paul's experience
in the city that Paul is referring to,
and he says this much.
One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision.
He said, do not be afraid.
Now, if the Lord said that to Paul,
what does it mean Paul was?
He was afraid.
The Lord continued, he said, keep on speaking.
Do not be silent.
So if Paul was afraid, what was he tempted to do?
Be quiet, not to tell.
Jesus says, keep on speaking.
Then he says, for I am with you,
and no one is going to attack you and harm you.
Attack you and harm you.
What was Paul afraid of?
Possibly being attacked.
He had good reason for that fear if it was there.
He says, Jesus says, I have many people in this city.
Now you and I are like Paul.
When we go out to tell the story to somebody else,
we have fears.
We feel weak in doing it.
We feel incapable.
What if they say this?
What will I say?
We have all of these fears.
But like Paul, we share an available helper.
We share an available helper.
It is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's power was demonstrated through Paul.
Now whether this was through apostolic signs
of miracles and wonders, Paul doesn't say here.
Perhaps he has in mind something as simple
as the Holy Spirit producing conviction
and lifting the minds and the hearts of these pagans
out of their deep rootedness in that pagan stuff
and the immorality that went along with it
out of its superstition and its darkness.
Its ignorance.
The Holy Spirit awakening these people
to see their need for Christ.
Friends, that takes the Holy Spirit's power.
You and I can go and tell, but only the Holy Spirit
can awaken the conscience to the need of Christ as Savior.
Paul says, I was with you.
This was my condition, but the Holy Spirit was there.
And he worked through me.
Why does Paul point this out?
Because he does not want them to be dependent upon him
or any other human being.
He wants their faith to rest upon Christ alone.
You know, there's a subtle temptation that we face
when we talk to people.
And that temptation is to make them followers of us.
And sometimes even dependent upon us.
Paul seems to be saying here,
I don't want any people following me
or depending upon me.
He is saying, here's what I was like.
It was God who did the work
and I want your faith to rest upon him, not me.
And so it brings me to my summation statement
which I ask you again to read with me
from your notes are on the screen.
My part in God's work, you see that?
Let's read it together.
My part in God's work is to be the Spirit's channel
through whom he can release his power.
Was talking to one of the men of our church this week
who told me such a great story.
I asked him to write it down
so I would have the gist of it.
He says, I met a business client of mine
in Starbucks coffee shop.
And she told me she was on the verge
of a serious migraine headache
but she didn't have a migraine,
her migraine medicine with her.
I asked her if she would like me to pray for her.
Now isn't that interesting?
Would that have occurred to you?
I'm not sure it would have occurred to me.
I probably would have said,
can we go get you some medicine?
But this guy says, you know, I'm here
and the Holy Spirit is here.
And so he says, can I pray for you?
This lady is not a Christian.
She said, yes, she can pray for me.
So right there at Starbucks,
they bowed their heads and Joe prayed.
After I prayed for Jesus to help her,
just seconds later, she had an astonished look on her face
and her eyes opened wide,
exclaiming that it had all just gone away.
The nausea, the blurry peripheral vision
and the pre-migraine headache,
all gone just like that, she said.
She sat there and said it again,
that it was all gone, that it had all gone away.
The demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power.
I wonder if we can look at simple events in our lives
like this as opportunities,
not only to tell, but to demonstrate the power of God.
Now God doesn't always heal immediately,
but what a great idea it is to say, can I pray for you?
In this case, God demonstrated his power immediately.
My part in God's work is to go
and simply tell others the good news,
trusting the Holy Spirit to do the converting in his time.
I don't have to twist anybody's arm.
I don't have to try to persuade them
because I don't want them depending on me anyway.
All I have to do is go, tell, and trust
and get out of the way and let God do what God does.
What do I need in order to work with God in the world?
Well, it's not some great ability.
It's not having celebrity and fame
so that somebody will listen to you.
It's not getting a degree in theology.
Not a bad thing to do, but it's not necessary.
My life doesn't have to get perfect
before I can tell anybody, thank God for that,
or I would never tell anybody anything.
What do I need to do in order to work with God in the world?
Simply make myself available to him.
That's all I have to do.
What hinders you from that?
This last week I was preparing my message
and I decided it was time to get something to eat
and so I left and went to where I had my lunch
and I need to tell some of you for your relief
that I have upgraded myself for cheap lunches.
I did fairly frequently go to Costco
because of the free floor show there
that you get along with the food.
The food's a great price and it's not bad,
but this isn't the weather for Costco.
So I have stepped up and I went to McDonald's
and I had my lunch, did a little bit of work
I wanted to do, some more studying there at McDonald's,
went out to get in the car and as I sat down in the car,
I glanced to my right out through the window
and I saw a young lady walking toward the car
waving at me and I had seen her,
just glanced at her quickly, she had gotten out of a truck
as I was coming out of the restaurant
and I got into the car and she had walked to my car
and she was waving at me and I thought
I'd better wave back, that could be somebody
from the Shawnee campus, I don't know,
so I wave back at her.
Then I looked at her and I realized,
I don't know her at all.
And so I rolled down my window, I said,
can I help you?
And she said, could I have a few dollars to get something to eat?
And I said, well, why are you hungry?
She said, well, I haven't eaten in a long time.
I said, well, where are your parents?
And she said, I'm homeless
and I'm living with my boyfriend in his truck.
As she unfolded a little bit more of her story,
I came to find out that she's really being looked for by the CPS
that they don't want her in her home with her mother
because she's a bad influence on her siblings, they say.
They want her to go live with her father.
She said, I will not live with my father
because he beat me when I was a child.
She felt her only option is to run away
and that's what she's done.
And I thought to myself, as she said, she's hungry
and I had money in my pocket, I can buy her food.
I thought to myself, I don't want to give her money
because I don't know what she's going to do with the cash, right?
So I'll go in and buy it.
Oh, but what will happen if I go in and buy her food
and somebody sees me buying this young woman food?
You know what I'm saying?
Those are the fears, those are the thoughts
that went through my mind just that fast.
And I decided to risk it.
And so I said, I'll go in and buy you some food.
And so we went in and she said, what can I order?
And I said, whatever you want.
She looked at me like, wow, really?
I said, yeah.
So she ordered enough food for herself and for her boyfriend.
And as we were waiting on the food, I said,
can I go meet your boyfriend?
She said, sure.
So we went out to the truck, carried the food out there.
And by this time he had gone somewhere and was back at the truck.
I introduced myself to him and I spoke to both of them.
And I said, God loves you both so much.
And by the way, I found out that she has in the past
regularly attended an evangelical church here in town.
And I said, God loves you both so much.
He doesn't want you living this way.
God has so much more for you than this.
Would you let us help you?
I gave them the information about a church.
They may be here this morning in this service.
I don't know. They said they would be here today.
Here's my point as I close this message.
I didn't really think about being available as I went over to McDonald's.
I'd been preparing a sermon on being available.
I went to have lunch and come back and continue my sermon preparation
on being available to God.
And God just stepped right in there and said,
this is the person that I want you to tell something to.
I told him as much as the situation would allow for in that circumstance.
And I learned something.
And I hope you'll learn from my experience.
I hope you'll learn from my experience.
That whatever we're doing, wherever we're going, we can tell.
And all we have to do is be available.
And tell what God wants us to tell and trust the Holy Spirit to take it from there to the next step.
What are you going to do in 2008?
What are you going to do this week?
To whom is God sending you?
Maybe it's a short-term missions trip.
Maybe it's a short-term mission trip.
Maybe it's to another people vocationally.
Maybe it's across the street or to your buddy at school.
Last Monday, a guy who went to high school with was driving a truck in Idaho
in a blinding snowstorm and smashed into the back of another semi.
They airlifted him to the hospital.
He died on the way.
Larry was the one person out of my whole class that I had clearly shared the gospel with.
He turned around, walked away, and rejected the message that I know he heard.
Be available to God this week.
I hope you'll sing with me this soul chorus, I surrender all.
And as you do this, say to God, I'm available, Lord.
Let's sing it together.
I surrender all
All to Thee my life's the same old
I surrender all